Mixed media assemblage on wood panel, 1963-5. 774x495 mm; 30 1/2x19 1/2 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right.
Provenance: private collection.
This is the first known work by this painter, sculptor, musician and educator to come to auction. This early assemblage with found objects reflects his interest in both urban, social and political issues through the 1970s. Jazz was also a major influence in his work, particularly in his 1980s painted assemblages, including Homage to the Guitar, illustrated in Samella Lewis's African American Art and Artists. He was an accomplished and self-taught jazz musician, inspired by both Stuart Davis and Romare Bearden. Ryder was an illustration professor at the Rhode Island School of Design for almost 30 years. He was one of the founders of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and served as the museum's executive secretary in 1966-67. He had many museum exhibitions, including solo shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 1973 and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Boston in 1977. The year before his death, Ryder also organized an exhibition of jazz-related art for an international tour under the auspices of the United States Information Agency. St. James p. 462.
